ABSTRACT
In brief, intermittent psychotherapy it is expected that patients will have episodes of treatment throughout the life cycle. For each treatment episode the focused psychotherapist must answer four questions:
Who's presenting? The psychotherapist makes a differential diagnosis, which will inform him or her about the psychodynamics of the patient and the entry points to treatment.
Why now? The psychotherapist makes an operational diagnosis to determine the precipitating incident that brings the patient to seek psychotherapy at this particular time.
What for? The psychotherapist determines the implicit contract of the patient, which often differs from the stated, explicit request.
How? The psychotherapist formulates homework, a behavioral assignment that enables the patient to continue the process of change between sessions. Homework operationalizes the therapeutic contract.
